The Sea Dragon that errected its body high above the s.h.i.+p slowly stared down toward the group as a cold mist surrounded the area, not letting any of them see even the rear end of that dragon. With a deep voice that reverberated throughout the ocean, the Dragon started to speak.
"Who art thou to pa.s.s to these holy lands?" The Dragon asked, before the Paladin Half-Dragon spoke up loudly, "Oh Great Guard, I am an inhabitant of this Island, and these are the trusted companions to Dragons." He exclaimed, and the Giant Sea Dragon seemed to want to try and take a closer look, leaning forward with his giant ice blue eyes.
But before they could continue any more than that, the Dragon"s pupils shrunk down as if in shock and he moved backward at the same time. "M-M-M-Master?!" The Dragon exclaimed as he looked at a certain one of the five originals, while the Paladin just raised his brows and turned over toward them, unsure what was actually happening.
"Y-You"re finally back! It"s been years!" With a somewhat excited voice, the Dragon seemed to start even wagging its tail, creating giant waves all over the place that made the s.h.i.+p wave around left and right.
And before they knew it, the Dragon"s whole body became covered in a slight layer of mist before shrinking down, causing a figure to appear at the height of the Dragon"s snout. And then, that figure started dropping down toward the group at high speeds, aiming for the one that seemed to have tamed it all those years in the past.
This time around, it wasn"t Eisen, however. Instead, it was the Tamer of the group, Jyuuk, who was soon tightly embraced by a young, well-endowed woman. She had lengthy ears and light blue hair and eyes, and a few scales running along the back of her neck and her arms, but other than that, she looked just like a normal person.
"Ahh, it"s been so long~!" She exclaimed with a pleasured, gleeful expression as she rubbed her face on Jyuuk"s chest, while the Monkey Beastperson was just holding his hands up and looking toward Xenia in horror as to say "I don"t know what"s going on". But then, it seemed like even the Dragoness realized what was going on around them, looking at the woman her master was looking at so intensely as well, before pressing herself off of Jyuuk immediately, acting completely different to before.
Just now, she acted like a spoiled child, but after that she was acting in a quite dignified manner, bowing slightly forward toward Xenia. "Long time no see, Mistress. Excuse me for that, but it"s been so long since I"ve seen your Husband that I couldn"t resist myself~." She explained with a light smile, tilting her head to the side just so slightly, although her words gave everyone quite the shock.
Especially Jyuuk and Xenia themselves. "H-H-Husband?!" Xenia asked with a stutter as her face became dyed red, while the same happened to the Beastperson standing next to her. However, Eisen had a little bit of a different thought right now.
"Huh, that makes sense..." Eisen muttered to himself, although he quickly tried to avert the topic to something completely different, "Anyway, you, Guard, we can enter the island now, right?" The old man asked, but the others were simply confused about why he was trying to change the topic all of a sudden.
With a slight frown, Jyuuk spoke up in response to thosee thoughts, "Eisen, shouldn"t we talk about this a lit-"
"No." Eisen interrupted him immediately. "Think about what I told you in the Guild room. Don"t say anything about this. Think about it, but don"t say a single sylable about anything in relation to this." As the old man glared at them, making their whole bodies shudder for a moment, everyone was pretty unsure about what was going on, especially those beside the Originals, so Eisen quickly took the lead. "Our experience was stolen from us. I don"t doubt that Jyuuk was the one that tamed you in the past, but right now, neither he nor any of us remember that happening, I"m sorry." The old man explained, before the Sea Dragoness looked at Eisen in shock.
"What? You actually... I"m sorry, I didn"t know..." The Dragoness said, accepting all of this a lot more than Eisen thought she would at first, and her wording was pretty weird to Eisen as well, as if she already expected it somewhat.
"So that"s really what it was, huh? I did feel our connection weaken to where it was nearly inexistent, but I didn"t expect that to happen... It happened a few times before, not to this extent, but..." The young woman said with a bitter expression, before Eisen just slightly smiled at her, "Don"t worry, even without memories of you, Jyuuk isn"t the type of person to treat you like you don"t have anything to do with each other. Right?" Eisen asked with a smile as he turned toward Jyuuk, who nodded his head in response.
"Of course, there"s no reason to!" Jyuuk exclaimed in response, before he looked over toward Xenia standing in the corner of his eye, "As long as you don"t try to do things that count as cheating on her, obviously..." He added, and immediately, the Dragoness nodded her head wildly.
"Yes yes, I can do that! You always told me that, after all... But if you don"t know about me anymore, do you remember my name~?" She asked, although her expression was neither completely sad nor really happy, just something awkward inbetween.
"Erm... That"s pretty hard, and Eisen I swear to whatever G.o.ds are listening, if you-" Jyuuk tried to say, but the old man quickly interrupted him with a smirk, "I"d say something like Umiryuu, Kaiyoryuu, or Kairyuu to shorten the latter." Eisen suggested, and Jyuuk"s face, which barely just returned to its regular color, once more became dyed in crimson when the Dragoness nodded her face.
"What, how"d you know?!" She asked confused, while Eisen just started to laugh out loudly. "Well, I was always called Kai, though~." The Sea Dragoness said with a smile, still surprised that Eisen was able to guess her name earlier than Jyuuk.
"Dammit Eisen, what the h.e.l.l?" Jyuuk asked embara.s.sedly, but Eisen just chuckled in response, and while this was all happening, the Paladin had something to say about all of this.
"You... Are the great Guard? Sent here by Trygan himself to protect the island from invaders?" The Paladin asked, but Kai immediately shook her head and tilted it to the side as she did so, "Huh? No, I was sent here by Jyuuk... Trygan"s a cool guy overall, but that old geezer"s just so... stiffly and uptight whenever I hang out with him... So why would I hang around here and protect his island for him? I came here because Master asked me to!"
Shocked at having the Deity he literally prayed to every day being called "Stiffly and Uptight", the Paladin didn"t really know how to react. But there was something else that was much more important in what she just said. "What do you mean "Whenever you hang out with him"? Do you have a way to contact him?" Eisen asked, and Kai slowly nodded her head.
"Mhm, I do. It"s part of my abilities~! Actually, I"m not just a regular Sea Dragon, I"m Clairvoyant! And so, I can get in contact with him through my Dreamscape~!" She explained, and immediately, Eisen opened his eyes wide in surprise. "Right, yeah... I already met a dragon that met me in my Dreamscape... Can you let me speak to Trygan tonight?" Eisen asked, and Kai interlocked her fingers behind her back with a nod.
"Of course! Just you, or the others as well?" She asked, and Brody immediately spoke up. "Obviously us as well!" Brody exclaimed, but Eisen instantly shot that suggestion down.
"No, only me." The old man said, but Brody looked at him annoyedly, "What do you mean, why do you want to do all of this on your own? It involves us just as much as it does you!" Brody pointed out rather annoyedly, bordering on anger, but Eisen had a rather simple answer.
"Listen, if you"re seeing red, go ahead and come with me. If not, then I"m not letting you come along." Eisen said with a quite clear, unwavering voice, and Brody just clicked his tongue and turned away, while Kai tilted her head to the side confused.
"Master, what does being angry have to do with it?" She asked, but Jyuuk just shook his head. "Nothing, don"t worry about it..." The Beastperon replied, while Eisen nodded his head and looked at the time, before turning back toward Kai. The "seeing red" part wasn"t about anger, even if he wanted that to be what it sounded like. Instead, it was about the red notification that was still constantly floating around Eisen. He was able to move it behind his head so that he wouldn"t be able to see it even if he tried, but even then, it seemed to be a sign that he was able to "Break through" the mind-control that made everyone forget about what they were talking about. The others didn"t see these yet, so they weren"t able to fight through it no matter how much they wanted to. And considering the conversation Eisen wanted to have with Trygan, that wasn"t something they could afford.
"Can you send me there right now?" Eisen asked, and Kai nodded her head in response. "Sure! Right here?" She asked, so the old man nodded his head, sitting down cross-legged in front of her.
"Then we"ll move toward the island tomorrow, we should be safe no matter what with Kai around." Eisen pointed out, and before anyone there even knew it, Kai extended her hand toward the old man and tapped his forehead, and extending from that spot, Eisen"s whole body turned to metal as he entered a sleep-like state.
From Eisen"s perspective, he could slowly see the world around him just freeze, as if someone hit pause on everything. And then, with every blink, a little more of the world around him until then was replaced with a bright sky, although deep underneath him, there seemed to be a vast, infinite ocean. And when the area directly around Eisen was replaced, he found himself in a Marble Pavilion with a single round table in the center and two chair placed on either side. And on one of those chairs sat Trygan, smiling surprised as he looked at Eisen.
Immediately he stood up from his seat and looked at the old man with a smile. "Father! How... Unexpected... Pleasantly so, of course! I expected Kairyuu as usual, but to think that you came here through her... I"m glad to hear you made it to my Island already!" Trygan exclaimed, and Eisen just slightly smiled as he looked at the weirdly young-looking elderly man in front of him. It wasn"t that he was both old and young like Eisen weirdly enough was, but Trygan just looked young. He had a long beard and white hair, but he didn"t have any wrinkles at all, he simply gave off an "Old Air" somehow.
"Yeah, we met Kai only a few minutes ago, though, and she already nearly endangered Jyuuk and Xenia"s relations.h.i.+p, and then made a Half-Dragon that deeply believes in you question what kind of G.o.d you are." Eisen explained with a light smile, before Trygan chuckled in response and motioned to the chair opposite to the one he was sitting in before.
"Yes, Kairyuu is like that, is she not?" The Dragon G.o.d said with a light, pleasant smile as he served some tea to Eisen, while the old man just sat down on the chair. "So? Is there a reason you wanted to see me?" Trygan asked, and the old man nodded his head with a slightly bitter wry smile, "Yeah, I"m sorry that it wasn"t just me wanting to see my son. Of course that is true, but there is another reason as well."
"And what would that reason be?" Trygan asked in response, quite curious about it, before Eisen just smiled at him.
"I want you to tell me what Samuel told all of you guys."